Duke has been the most effective workforce within the nation this season. It’s not a lot of a hot-take to make that declare. Nevertheless, on the primary day of the event, each flaw that we’ve seen from the Blue Devils bubbled to the floor and virtually prompted them to have a wildly embarrassing first-round exit.
Siena had Duke on the ropes. They held a 13-point lead within the second half, the most important deficit that Duke had confronted all season lengthy. It was a catastrophe of a efficiency for the Blue Devils, who had been taking part in what was primarily a house sport in Greenville, South Carolina. Jon Scheyer merely didn’t have Duke ready for the second.
When interviewed at halftime, Maliq Brown mentioned the Blue Devils had been coping with some nerves and believed Siena could be a cakewalk.
I’d like to argue that one thing like this is able to by no means occur underneath Coach Ok, however he did have a workforce that went right down to 15-seed Lehigh. If Duke has a efficiency like this in another spherical, their time within the dance might be short-lived, however perhaps this was the wakeup name they wanted.
You need to respect each workforce in your method in March Insanity, and TCU goes to be a big leap in expertise from a Sienna workforce that primarily performed their entire beginning lineup for the whole thing of the sport.
The Horned Frogs bodily dominated Ohio State for a lot of the matchup, with elite ball stress from their guards on protection and aggressive put up play, the place they dominated the glass and garnered 12 offensive rebounds in opposition to the Buckeyes. Siena appeared to expire of gasoline within the ultimate 10 minutes of this sport, however TCU discovered its second wind within the ultimate 10 minutes of theirs. They gained’t simply fade away in the event that they draw back early.
Freshman Cayden Boozer was spectacular in his first event sport, doing an amazing job of changing Caleb Foster because the offensive playcaller; nonetheless, he struggled to get the remainder of the workforce concerned. Cam Boozer, who will doubtless be the nationwide participant of the 12 months, had a pleasant stat line, however was actually bullied by Francis Folefac and Riley Mulvey. Duke should do a greater job at getting him higher seems to be, and Cam should do a greater job of caring for the ball.
Hopefully, Duke learns from their first-round errors and generates offensive rim stress from begin to end in opposition to TCU. When Boozer and firm attacked on offense, Sienna stood no probability of stopping them.
With that being mentioned, Duke -11.5 is the freest wager of all time. This workforce was the most effective within the nation all season for a cause. I don’t assume they’ll put up two stinkers in a row on the large stage.
